Revisiting the Past
by everlovingdeer
Summary: "It's been a while," I greeted coolly, picking up the menu so I wouldn't have to meet his eyes. "Too long," he agreed smiling a little when I glanced at him from over the top of the menu. "I was so convinced that you'd run away when you realised that your date for the evening was me." "So was I," I muttered.
1. Revisiting the Past

I swear, the things I was willing to do to get my pushy friends off my back was bordering on ridiculous. Here I was, standing outside of a restaurant whilst trying to convince myself to actually walk inside and meet my blind date for the evening. This entire blind date situation hadn't even been my idea in the first place! The only reason that I had agreed to this stupid idea was to get Morag off my back. She had somehow taken it upon herself to set me up with the 'perfect' man for me. But she failed to remember that I had seen the consequences of her matchmaking first hand and Merlin, I had never seen Luna curse someone as viciously as she had done to Morag once she'd returned from a disaster of a blind date.

Eyeing the restaurant doors, I contemplated not even walking in. It would be so easy for me to disapparate and end up in my cosy front room, curled up with my cat. But the only reason I hadn't done so was because of Morag who would hunt me down the moment she found out that I had been a no-show.

Letting out one last deep breath, I forced myself to push open the doors of the restaurant. Stepping inside the restaurant, my eyes scanned each of the tables as I wondered just which fool had 'pestered' Morag into getting her to set me up with him. She hadn't even told me what the man looked like so how was I supposed to identify him?

"So, you managed to convince yourself to come into the restaurant then?" My eyes roved over the man who stepped in front of me.

"Nott?" Surely Morag hadn't set me up with the Slytherin? She knew that my track record of dating Slytherins wasn't exactly ideal.

"Macdougal told me that you'd hang around outside for a while before you managed to convince yourself to step inside." He shrugged a shoulder, peering down at me.

"Are you –"

"This is my restaurant," he explained, "Your date is a regular and well, when Macdougal figured out that I owned the place, she got me on side to make sure you actually went on the date."

I smiled uncertainly, eyes continuing their search of the room. "So you know who my date is then?"

"You do too." He made no comment on the way his words made my eyes snap towards his and instead extended an arm out to gesture for me to walk on. "Let me take you to him?"

"Lead the way," I murmured as I followed after the taller man.

Nott led me through the room, walking between the tables of customers and towards the more quieter part of the room. Peering over his shoulder my eyes instantly lanced on a man who was sat alone, peering down at his wand. He looked up, showing me his all too familiar face. My stomach dropped.

No. She wouldn't have. Morag wasn't the sort of person to –

Friends didn't set their friends up on a blind date with their ex-boyfriend! Adrian and I had broken up a long time ago and Morag wouldn't attempt to reopen that wound again. According to her the blind date that I know knew to be Adrian, had pestered for ages but if she knew it was him of all people then she should have held her ground!

I prayed silently to Merlin, to all four of the founders and even to Dumbledore himself that Nott would continue to lead me passed Adrian. But he didn't. He stopped beside the table, just like I had been praying he wouldn't and I struggled not to glare at both Slytherin men who were watching me to see how I would react.

Nott made the decision for me; he pulled out my chair and pushed it back in when I had sat down. He disappeared moments later, saying that one of the waiting staff would be with us in a few moments.

"It's been a while," I greeted coolly, picking up the menu so I wouldn't have to meet his eyes.

"Too long," he agreed smiling a little when I glanced at him from over the top of the menu. "I was so convinced that you'd run away when you realised that your date for the evening was me."

"So was I," I muttered, straightening out to meet his gaze head on. Why was I trying to cower away? It wasn't as if I had been the one in the wrong. "But, well, we were kids then and we've grown up now. Why can't two civil adults get a meal together?"

"I don't see no reason they can't."

Glancing away from him, I smiled at the approaching waiter who promptly took our orders. Taking a sip of my glass of water, I eyed him critically. He certainly wasn't the young boy that had broken up with me anymore. His jaw had squared off a little as he grew into his features, eyes still as striking as they had been when we were in school. But he was battle worn now. No one had expected him to fight on our side – I certainly hadn't and it was even more surprising when he abandoned the seemingly obvious route of academics to become an auror.

"Morag told me that you'd been annoying her to set this situation up and I'm curious. Why?"

"I think it's time we try –"

"Don't finish that sentence," I interrupted him. "We broke up for a reason, one that I still remember to this day."

He started to protest, "The timing wasn't right –"

"Look, Adrian, we started dating when you were in your final year and I was in my fifth, of course the timing wasn't right." I rolled my eyes. "The timing wasn't right when you called it all off the next year so what makes you think the timing is right now? It just makes sense for us to not start something and frankly, I'm not willing to start anything with you again."

I definitely wasn't willing to do it. I wasn't willing to fall so head over heels for him again. Only for him to throw it all away because I was muggleborn. He had been off getting into the workforce and he didn't see the way his bloody letter had torn me up inside. Because that was how he had done it – over a bloody letter. He was oblivious to the way I had wanted to cry and the nights where I _had_ cried myself to sleep, only to wake up to Padma patting my hair soothingly. The rest of my dormmates thankfully didn't speak of it – not even Mandy made a quip about our failed relationship.

"You're still hurt," he said gently, realising instantly what I had been trying to hide. He leaned over the table, voice lowering slightly as he spoke earnestly "Don't you see that I was trying to protect you? We were in a time of brewing war and my being with you would have painted a target on your back. My father would have had you dead."

"Adrian –"

"Do you really not see it? Or are you not willing to see it?"

Our food arrived, sparing me from answering his question.

* * *

My time at Hogwarts came to an end only two years ago and it ended with the most dangerous battle of my life. By the grace of Merlin I had managed to make it through the battle with nothing more than a few scratches and had been forced to make a choice between settling in the muggle or wizarding world. I had wanted to compromise – not wanting to force myself to choose a place between both of the worlds and had found an apartment in muggle London that was still close to the Ministry. My parents couldn't have been happier that I had chosen to stay close to them and I had decided that I had made the right choice. But that feeling only lasted for a short while. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been suppressing my magical side, even when I tried my very best not to.

I eventually decided to relocate to the wizarding world. After finding the perfect apartment and falling in love with it, I was left with the monumental task of unpacking. It had been over a month since I had moved into my new apartment and I had still to unpack. So far I had resorted to living out of the moving boxes, because I had run myself ragged with the amount of work I brought home with me and there was simply no time to unpack.

Padma, who had dropped by for a surprise housewarming, had been horrified and had insisted that she'd be round to help me unpack this weekend. And she made good on her promise, and even dragged some of our old dormmates with her. They had appeared on my doorstep in the early morning and I had still been in my pyjamas.

Ushering them into the apartment, I hurriedly changed and joined the girls who were busy catching up. Although we had all grown close during our time at Hogwarts, we had separated ways once we had finished school. Walking into the front room, I found the girls already busy looking through the boxes, to try and figure out what was supposed to go where.

"Merlin," Padma sighed, looking up at me, "You _really_ haven't changed since school, have you? You're just as untidy."

"You call it untidy, I say it's organised in a way that's different to your definition of organised."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes, "Why don't you tell us what goes where and then we can get this done quickly."

Each of the girls took to unpacking my boxes and whilst Morag and Lisa shelved my books on the bookshelf, I levitated the box that contained the clothes that I had yet to pack. Walking into my room, I set the box onto my bed before placing my wand into my back pocket. Padma followed after me shortly and we worked in silence.

I was refolding a pair of my jeans when Padma let out a slight gasp. Pausing through my folding, I looked at her to see the familiar bracelet that she was holding in her hand. My eyes widened and I cast a glance at the box she had decided to unpack for me and realised that it was the one that had all of my things from Adrian. Rowena, I should have thrown those things out a _long_ time ago.

Padma raised an eyebrow, looking between me and the bracelet. Setting the bracelet back in the box, she crossed the room and shut my bedroom door.

"You've still got that bracelet."

"It doesn't mean anything," I insisted as I placed the jeans that I refolded for the fifth time, into my cupboard. "Really – it's just a pretty piece of jewellery."

"I didn't say it wasn't," she said gently, "But we both know that it means more to you than that – you haven't worn it since you broke up."

"It's because whenever I look at it, I remember that he broke up with me by calling me a mudblood," I said quietly, returning to my clothes. It was easier to talk to her without having to look her in the eyes.

"We both know he didn't mean it in that way," she insisted as she started to help me fold my clothes. "He wouldn't have dated you in the first place if he did. You know what his dad was like –"

"Merlin knows what he was doing dating me if he was so scared of his dad." I cleared my throat and changed the subject, not commenting on the way Padma frowned at me. "Anyway, how's your sister? The last I heard, she'd gone travelling for a while before bunking in your apartment?"

Padma answered my question and I tried to listen to her as she spoke, I really did. But I couldn't – not when my attention was focused on an entirely too annoying Slytherin male.

Really, what had he been doing dating me? The man had been in his last year at Hogwarts! And I had been that random fifth year who he really had no business being around. Except, he made it his business to be around me, to help me whenever it became obvious that I needed help. My dormmates had all teased me saying that he had approached me with ulterior motives but I had brushed their words aside. Except, those words held the truth.

He had suddenly – literally in the middle of one our trips to the library – asked me out. I had been completely frazzled and more than a little put out that my friends had been right and I had been wrong. He had taken my silence as acceptance and I hadn't told him otherwise. I hadn't wanted to.

Following our break up, I hadn't wanted anything to do with him. I had made sure that he wasn't to be a part of my life but he kept making it so hard to do. Especially when I remembered the way he had shielded me from one of his father's curses during the Battle of Hogwarts. I hadn't even thanked him for it.

And now he was back, determined to make a place for himself in my life.

"Padma," I said quietly, knowing that of my friends, she was the one to go to for advice.

She looked over at me, taken by surprise by how serious I sounded. "Yeah?"

"I went on a date with him."

She furrowed her eyebrows. "With who?"

"Adrian."

She froze before moving all at once. Blanketing the room with a silencing charm, she sat down on the bed and made me sit down beside her. "Tell me everything."

And so I did. I told her how Morag had set it all up. How I had sat down and spoken civilly to him and left the restaurant after paying for my half of the meal, despite Adrian's insistence that he would pay. I had apparated home before he could say another word.

"Morag, that cow, she didn't tell anyone any of this." Padma shook her head, and raised her eyes to mine. "So, what are you going to do? Are you going to see him again?"

I bit down on my bottom lip, "I don't know."

"Do you _want_ to see him again?" she asked gently.

"I don't know."

But I did.

* * *

"What on earth are you doing here?" the question left me before I could stop it.

My eyes roved across the man who was waiting for me outside of my doorstep. Adrian, clearly waiting for me to come home after work, straightened up and greeted me with a smile. "I'm clearly waiting for you."

"I can see that." I eyed him suspiciously, "How did you even find out that I live here?"

"Terence lives in the same apartment complex," he explained, not affected by how defensively I was behaving. "He actually lives next door and well, he mentioned that you happened to be his new neighbour."

"And you just decided to visit me because?" Gesturing for him to step aside, I unlocked my front door and walked inside.

Leaving the door open for him to follow after me, I shrugged out of my coat. Adrian stepped into my apartment, looking around as he shut the door behind him. Merlin, I had a bad feeling about this.

"I'd actually like it if you'd answer my question," I said pointedly, stopping his search of my apartment. Crossing my arms over my chest, I raised an eyebrow when he met my eyes with his own. I shuffled slightly on my feet, "Well?"

"Is it so bad for one friend to pop around and visit another friend?"

"I wasn't aware that we were friends."

"I thought that's what we agreed to be," he pointed out as he walked past me, heading further into the apartment and making himself comfortable. Honestly, the man was currently feeling more comfortable in this entire situation than I was. It was as if _I_ was the one that had arrived unannounced at _his_ home.

"We agreed to be civil, Adrian," I corrected, following after him.

"That doesn't mean that we can't be friends, now does it?" At the sight of the upwards curve of his lips, I rolled my eyes and turned away. He was enjoying himself far too much.

"And you'll be satisfied with being friends only?" Turning back to him, I met his eyes curiously

"For now." He sat down on my sofa, grinning when my cat, Tallulah approached him and curled herself around his feet. "Unless you want to skip the whole friends stage and get right into making up and dating again?"

"Don't try and put words in my mouth."

He chuckled slightly, leaning down to pet the top of Tallulah's head. She, being the massive traitor that she was, nuzzled into his hand. Adrian glanced up at me with a grin, "She still remembers me."

"Of course she does," I muttered under my breath, remembering the number of times Tallulah had disappeared whilst I had been at Hogwarts and my panic had been extreme. But she'd turn up eventually, like she always did, tucked safely in Adrian's arms as he brought her back to me. He'd always leave with a stroke to her head, a kiss to my lips and a promise that he'd meet up with me later.

"Does she still hate other men?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Friends aren't interested in pervious boyfriends."

"And I'm not," he insisted, the picture of innocence, "I'm just asking about Tallulah."

"Of course you are." I motioned for Tallulah to return to my side but she stuck her head high in the air, turning back to rub against Adrian's leg. He laughed slightly, picking her up and setting her on his lap. She stretched languidly on his lap, revelling in his much-missed attention. "She loved my last boyfriend."

Adrian's hand froze, making her yowl because he wasn't giving her his full attention. He returned to his stroking, eyes lowering down to Tallulah.

"Did you honesty not expect me to date anyone for 4 years?"

His silence told me that he had expected that. He cleared his throat and said quietly, "I didn't."

My eyes moved around the room, "You couldn't have expected me to wait for someone who broke up with me by bringing up the flaw that my heritage was supposed to have been."

"You should have known that that was all a rouse," he grumbled, "Merlin woman, how could you think –"

"Well, I did," I interrupted, "Did you really expect me to understand your mind games?"

"I'd have thought you were Ravenclaw enough to understand." That stung.

I let out a breath and called out, "Llulah, come here." She didn't listen to me, curling more against Adrian and I didn't bother to call for her again. There was no way she was going to leave him any time soon. She'd missed him too much to do that. "Look Adrian, why are you here? I want an honest answer-."

"I came here today because I've held off enough – Merlin, I thought I was done waiting but it seems not." He let out a sigh, running the hand that wasn't stroking Tallulah, through his hair. "I was going to make you see sense today because I'm going to be gone for a while."

"Where are you going?"

"There's a mission I've been assigned to," he explained, removing Tallulah from his lap and rising to his feet. "I'm going to be gone for a month at least, and I really wanted you to understand why I did what I did. Salazar, do I want that."

"I _do_ understand, Adrian," I said quietly, watching him as he approached me, "But I just don't know if I can love you anymore."

I couldn't tell whether he bought the lie or not, as he closed the distance between us. He cradled the back of my neck with one of his hands and before I could comment on it, he pressed his lips against mine in an overwhelmingly chaste kiss.

He pulled back far too quickly, "Whether you realise it or not, love, you've just fuelled my ambition. And if there's one thing we Slytherins are, it's ambitious."

* * *

Each day that I came into work, it was always with a cup of coffee and today's issue of the Daily Prophet under my arm. I had started picking up a copy on my way into work, when I had one day, caught a brief glimpse of the headline in passing, only to take a few steps back to read the paper properly. The article went on to talk about the Ministry's new mission to round up the remaining death eaters and the newest group of aurors including Potter and Weasley were to be involved in this mission. But, as much as I might have liked Potter and Weasley, it wasn't their names that had made me focus so much on the article as it had been the name of the auror in charge of the mission. Adrian was to lead the mission and it was unknown how long it was to last.

The article had been published almost a month ago, and I had started to buy a copy of the Daily Prophet every day since. As always, they had a two-page article printed on the mission where they gave us the latest details about the mission as well as a list of those that had been injured or lost as a result of the mission. My eyes always went to that section first.

And just as I did every day, I settled into my office and finished my coffee as I read over the article. They had caught the last few death eaters who had been held under custody in preparation for their trials. As I reached the end of the article, I folded the newspaper up and set it aside. Adrian hadn't been listed as being injured or otherwise and I could get on with my work.

Carrying on with the pressing work I had, I allowed my mind to drift way from Adrian, now that I knew he was safe. It seemed like it was going to be a productive day – I was ahead of schedule and as lunchtime approached, I was tempted to stay in and finish everything early. That way I could go home earlier. Just as I prepared myself to buy a sandwich and return to my office, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," I called out needlessly. The door opened only moments after the knocking, and before I could have said anything.

Adrian shut the door behind him and I found my eyes moving over him to look for any signs of harm. He seemed oblivious to what I was doing as he stood in front of the door and I frowned when I realised that he was leaning more heavily on one leg than the other.

"What are you doing here?" I asked instead of saying anything about his leg.

He cleared his throat and walked towards my desk. My eyes narrowed as I watched the unusual way he was walking; there was definitely something wrong with his left leg.

"I'm taking you out for lunch," he announced as if it was nothing big.

"I've got a lot of work I still need to do," I protested, trailing off at the firm look he gave me.

"You've also been given the rest of the day off."

"Oh yeah?" I raised an eyebrow, "By who exactly?

"Flint – your head of department." He smirked as the fight left me. He had gone over my head and spoken to the head of department. What else could I do but pack my things?

"And let me guess, you Slytherins like to help each other out."

"It's something like that," he agreed, helping me pack my things. "I was also his favourite chaser when he was captain so he was more willing to help me with this favour."

"And what exactly did he want in return?" Rising from my seat, I walked around my desk towards him.

"A blind date with one of the aurors on my team." He held out his arm for me to take, "Now, hurry up or we'll miss the reservation I made."

Without another word, I took the outstretched arm and allowed him to apparate me away. When we emerged on the other side, I stared up at the sign of the restaurant which I know knew belonged to Nott.

"Nott wasn't kidding when he said you were a regular here," I muttered as we headed inside.

"What can I say? I'm a loyal man."

We entered the restaurant and once we had sat down, my eyes drifted to the scar on his arm that was partly concealed by the coat sleeve he was wearing. It looked new, and still slightly raw. A part of me wanted to force him to return home and stay inside until he recovered but I knew how stubborn Adrian was. He wouldn't listen anyway.

He realised the object of my attention and shrugged out of his coat, showing off the scar. And without knowing it, I sucked in a breath between clenched teeth.

"Rowena, that needs stitches."

"It's fine," he said dismissively, making me look up at him. "Trust me, I've had worse."

"I'll take your word for it," I muttered.

"I got it during the mission," he said conversationally and I wanted to ask why his name had never popped up on the list of the injured. I had searched the list everyday but his name had never been on it. "We were supposed to round up the missing death eaters."

"I know." His eyebrows pulled up in surprise. "The Prophet published an article about it every day from the beginning of the mission. So, did you catch them? The death eaters?"

"We rounded up every single one." He looked proud, but why shouldn't he have been? He had led the team that rounded up the last of Voldemort's followers. "My

father was in the mix."

"I'm sorry."

"Why?" He shrugged, looking unaffected for a man whose father was facing a lifetime in Azkaban. "He was the one in the wrong."

I switched the topic, "The injury on your leg? Was that from the mission too?"

His eyebrows rose in surprise, "How did you –?"

"I'm just a keen observer," I muttered, growing red under his eyes. "If you were injured then why did you never appear on the list of injured? I checked it every –"

At the sight of his blooming smile, I trailed off. He kept his eyes on mine, "Were you concerned about me?"

"Very," I admitted, seeing no reason to lie. I shuffled slightly in my seat.

"I'm sorry I made you so worried."

"No, you're not," I said knowingly.

"You're right." He was outright grinning now. "I'm not."

I looked down at the menu, "So what would you recommend then?"

Adrian glanced down at his own menu, "Well if you still like pasta then –"

"Adrian," I interrupted before he could complete his sentence. He glanced up at me curiously. "The last one didn't count as a date, but." I bit down on my bottom lip hesitantly, "But this one does."

* * *

Adrian, as I had always known, was a man with little patience. It was a miracle that he had managed to make it through those 4 years that he made himself wait, without searching me out. This time he was also being made to wait because I wasn't sure that I was ready to date him. But he wasn't letting that dissuade him – he was busy pulling off all the tricks to get me to agree to starting things again. And whilst it was flattering that he was willing to do so much, it was also so completely confusing. Especially when I could see that I was pushing him to the end of his tether.

We continued to go on dates. Dates, that at most, ended with a peck of the lips and an owl to arrange another one. This was the first time I had been in Adrian's apartment because he'd wanted to stay in today. He had given me address of his apartment and I had floo'ed over without questioning why he had moved out of his family home.

He was waiting by the fireplace when I arrived, ready to greet me. Taking me in his arms the moment I stepped out of the fireplace, he chuckled slightly at how startled I was.

"How was your day?" he asked, pulling away.

"Overwhelmingly busy," I finally managed to say, slipping out of his arms and moving far before he could take a hold of me again. He was still extremely touchy. "I barely had enough time to think because I was rushing between meetings."

He frowned, "Do you want me to talk to Flint about it?"

"Don't you dare," I threw over my shoulder as I approached the picture frames that were hanging on the wall. Merlin, I was in so many of them. I had always wondered why he had been so insistent on taking pictures but I hadn't imagined that he'd use them to decorate his home. "It's my business and I can handle it on my own."

"Whatever you say." He crept up behind me, leaning his chin on my shoulder as he too looked at the pictures, "Did you skip lunch today as well?"

"I managed to get a sandwich whilst I was waiting for one of the meetings to begin."

"So you're hungry then?"

"Starving."

He pressed a kiss to my cheek before straightening up. "Well, we can't have that, now can we? Give me a minute."

I watched him as he walked towards, what I presumed was his kitchen. Left alone in his room, I cast a curious glance around the room before heading over to the sofa. Pulling my phone out of from my pocket, I read a text sent from my mum that asked for me to come home for the weekend. Sending back my reply, I pocketed my phone when Adrian walked back towards me.

"It shouldn't be long," he assured me as he settled down beside me, throwing an arm around the back of the sofa. "I told Poppy to make your favourite."

"Poppy?"

"My house elf." He chuckled at my frown, "I swear, you were one of the only students to join Granger's ridiculous club."

"You're a grown man," I reasoned, "Why can't you cook for yourself?"

"What can I say?" He played with a strand of my hair, "I'm a spoiled pureblood."

"You say that like it's a good thing," I muttered, pushing at his chest.

"Isn't it?" His grin faltered slightly, catching me by surprise.

"Adrian?" He tried to dismiss my concern by dropping the strand of hair he had been playing with to massage the back of my neck. "What's wrong?"

"What do you want to do?"

Furrowing my eyebrows, I removed his hand. It was too hard to concentrate when he was touching me. "What are you talking about?"

"About us?" He gestured between us. "What do you want to do about us? I know it seems like I'm rushing you but I've never been able to be patient when it comes to something I want. But I'm trying here."

Gaining understanding, I lowered my eyes to my lap and said quietly, "I'm confused about what to do."

He let out a slight sigh, looking to the ceiling, "Well it's obvious what I want you to do but that doesn't matter right now." He glanced at me, "What do _you_ want to do?"

"Adrian."

"If you think that you can't love me again then maybe it's better if we stop here. At least that way I won't be quite as heartbroken as I will be if we carried on and you decided against it. If it's what you want, then I'll bow out."

Following his declaration a thick silence blanketed the room and I fidgeted nervously with my fingers. Merlin, why was I waiting? What was it that I needed to let go of the last piece of hesitance that I held?

"No," I said gently, taking Adrian by surprise.

"No," he echoed as if the one word was the worst thing he'd ever heard before.

"No," I repeated, pushing my cardigan sleeve up, "Don't bow out."

He stared down at me, his expression undecipherable until he looked down at the arm I had just bared. His eyes narrowed in on the bracelet clasped around my wrist before looking up at me with a grin. Adrian moved before I had even realised he'd rose to his feet. One arm delved under my knees, the other around my waist as he hoisted me up into his arms.

"What are you doing?" I exclaimed, wrapping my arms around his neck so I didn't fall.

He didn't answer me as he carried me somewhere and when we crossed the threshold of his bedroom, I thumped him on the back.

"Adrian!" I couldn't help but laugh as he kicked the door shut.

"What?" he asked with a roughish grin, setting me down on the ground. "Don't you think it's time for us to catch up?"

"But what about Poppy and the food –?"

He silenced me with a kiss.


	2. Epilogue

_6 YEARS LATER_

I was going to kill him!

Glaring at the man who had the audacity to turn up unannounced in my home after months, _months¸_ where I couldn't contact him, I was just about ready to avada his ass. I narrowed my eyes at him as he took a step towards the bed. He halted his movements, seeing how annoyed I was and he had the bloody nerve to look confused about my behaviour.

"Don't you dare," I warned, raising my wand and aiming it at his chest. "Take another step closer to me Adrian Pucey and I'm going to blow a hole in your chest. Don't you even try me."

"Is that any way to greet your husband when he's returned home from work?" His tone was meant to be placating as he raised his hands upwards in surrender. But in my hormone addled it had the opposite effect and only infuriated me even more.

"This is the completely appropriate way to greet a man who abandoned his wife with no contact for six months."

He frowned and went to take a step towards the bed. I lowered my wand, pointing it between his legs and he halted, fearful of the possibility of losing his lower brain.

"I didn't abandon you, woman!" he insisted, meeting my eyes, pleading with me to understand him. "We were on a mission and –"

"Don't think for a second that I don't know that Adrian." I sighed, growing weary and lowered my wand to my side. Still, he made no move to close the distance between us. "The family of every auror on your team stormed into the ministry and Ginny was ready to strangle the minister when he told us that you'd gone undercover for a mission."

"Well, aren't you glad that I'm safe?" He trailed off awkwardly when he realised that his words had done nothing but bring back my glare.

"Adrian Pucey," I hissed, grabbing the pillow from his side of the bed and flinging it at him. He caught it in his arms, cradling it to his chest, "You were gone for six months, six bleeding months with no contact, _nothing_. How was I supposed to know if you were alive? Do you know how much fear you caused me! Goodness, you utter piece of _shit_ , I was about ready to call myself your widow."

"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?" he asked with a hesitant smile. "You know it was done to protect you."

"Overreacting my foot – you should be glad I'm not Ginny Potter who promised to welcome her husband home with a Bat-Bogey hex for leaving her alone with their son."

Adrian hesitantly crossed the distance between him and the bed, perching on the bed. "Love?"

"I hope you know that I'm seriously considering divorcing you," I muttered petulantly and even he knew I was lying.

"Of course you are," he said indulgently, not wondering about my uncharacteristic mood swings.

"You're damn right I am." I shoved him away from me when he pressed a kiss to my temple. "I've even got the paperwork drawn out in case you came home."

He drew up, eyes scanning over my face intently, "You're joking."

"Of course I am." I slumped against his chest, burying my head against his neck.

Breathing in deeply, I focused on his scent, the way his heart was beating steadily in his chest and the way his body was emitting warmth. He was here and he was alive. Merlin, that had been my biggest fear, that he'd die on the mission and there would be no way for me to know. It had terrified me that he could have been taken from me without a moment's warning, and it shook me to the core that he'd never know about the beginnings of our family.

"It's alright," he hummed quietly, running a hand through my hair to try and comfort me. "I'm home now."

"If you ever do something like that again," I muttered against him, refusing to pull away from him, "I'm going to kill you myself. You can forget about a dark wizard taking you down, I'll do it for them."

"I'm sorry." His apology was sincere but I frowned anyway, pulling away from him. "We all collectively decided that it was the best decision to make, given how dangerous our mission was."

"Yeah, well I needed you by my side when you were gone." I sighed, fidgeting with the blanket that was still wrapped tight around me. "It was a long six months Adrian."

He called my name gently, trying to get me to look at him. But I didn't. Instead, I pushed the blanket down, exposing the protruding bump of my stomach. He froze, eyes growing wide as he reached out a shaking hand to touch my stomach.

"You're really –"

"Yes," I rolled my eyes, "I'm growing your spawn."

"Woman," he snapped, looking up at me, "Did you just call my child a 'spawn'?"

"You're not the one that's been carrying the spawn for six months and had to deal with the ridiculous cravings. Merlin, why are magical cravings so gross? And the lack of control that being pregnant gives to your magic! Don't even get me started on that."

He smiled softly, rubbing a hand on my stomach. There was a sharp pain and I winced, but Adrian smiled when he felt the baby kicking.

"When did you find out?"

"A week or so after you left," I said quietly, watching a range of different emotions flicker across his face. "So you can understand why I was so desperate to find you."

He apologised again, growing even more sincere, "I'm sorry I left you alone."

"Don't worry," I reassured him, "My hormones have been all over the place lately. But if you even for a second think that means you can do something like this again, then you'll be coming home to an empty house."

He leaned over to kiss me, mumbling against my lips, "Yes, ma'am."


End file.
